Hauntings
by cloudsallaround
Summary: Firmly shut is the gate, locking away her memories of a distant time. Until Akane starts getting dreams. AkanexYasuaki
1. prelude

_Prelude; lock it all away._

**__****_lockitallawaylockitallaway_****_lockitallawaylockitallaway_****_lockitallawaylockitallaway_****_lockitallawaylockitallaway_****_lockitallawaylockitallaway_**

Memories. Sad ones, happy ones; Akane had made them all.  
By heart, she could trace the bustling streets of Kyou. With her mind's eye, she could see the mansion, the houses, the fields. In her ears, she could still hear the voices of her protectors and friends ringing.  
It was enough. It was too little. It was too much. She didn't know anymore.  
She didn't want it anymore.

Akane closed her eyes, and saw herself twice.  
Both her. The left one of the pair was the present Akane, looking very vulnerable and so very _normal_ in her flowing summer dress.

Next to her stood Akane of a distant time, the purple haori-esque clothing thrown over her school uniform. She looked strong and determined, and around her seemed to be a shadow, people that had been a long time ago, whispers of reassurance, adventure and protection.

Four years. _Four years _it had been!  
She had come home, with two of her guardians, and the dragon-summoner. Only that they weren't that anymore.

She could still see her parents, pale with grief (afterwards, they told her they had given up all hope she'd return and had died somewhere), their faces going slack in disbelief as their daughter plus three others stood at the front door, before they lit up. Family of the four teens was assembled, and after extensive hugging and crying, they had demanded an explanation.  
With help of her companions, she had told them everything. But their tale didn't meet the understanding they'd been hoping for; little siblings asked for another fairytale, and adults shook their head disapprovingly. End of story was, that they'd supposedly 'ran away from home', and thought they'd be forgiven of they'd think up such a crazy tale.  
Kids these days.  
Their sentence was being grounded for months to come

Still, Akane didn't give up. She tried to everyone willing to listen of her adventures, of how she had seen demons that looked like angels, and young princesses and loyal samurai. Of powerful priests and hotheaded boys with good hearts. Of emperors and noblemen.

Her friends sided with her, but after sometime, they told her, '_Maybe we should all just forget about this, Akane. We're back home now, anyway'_, happy to be home and able to finally move on.

But instead of forgetting it, Akane tried not to think about it, because those were very different things.  
Still, in history classes, she couldn't help the flash of recognition as her teacher droned on about the Heian Period. Nor could she hold back the few attempts, growing more feeble and desperate by the day, to convince someone about where she had been.  
She couldn't stop thinking of them, hindering her sleep.  
At school, students had dubbed her 'the crazy girl', and she stopped trying more and more.  
The dark rings around her eyes became something she couldn't ignore anymore.

At twenty, she had had enough. She wanted to forget it all. _Really _forget.  
Akane-now dragged Akane-then to an opened gate, its distant depths looming, leering at them both, as if wanting to swallow everything that came close. Akane-then's shadow rushed and rocked, trashed and rebelled. It didn't want to go, but the seemingly weak Akane-now had a strong will, and it got caught and subdued.

Even more open went the gate, mouth gaping.  
In went the strong priestess with her shadow of memories.  
The key churned, got pulled out of the lock by Akane-now-- no, it wasn't necessary to give her a special name now; there was only one Akane left-- Akane pocketed the key. After everything, she couldn't bear to throw it away.

A single tear slid down her cheek; who wouldn't cry, if a part of life had just been locked away?

After that, Akane slept soundly for weeks. Her skin reclaimed its healthy glow and the shadows under and in her eyes faded away. She made new friends at college, regaining her cheerful manner.

Hachiyou? What's that? Is it some kind of food?  
Akane was oblivious of it, unknowing. Akane was happy.

That's when the dreams began.

**__****_lockitallawaylockitallaway_****_lockitallawaylockitallaway_****_lockitallawaylockitallaway_****_lockitallawaylockitallaway_****_lockitallawaylockitallaway_**

**A/N; **Hullo! I just though of this, and had to write it!  Ah, it started off with a dramatic _bang_! Might tone that down.. then again, might not. :D  
Won't say more than this because.. must study now. Test week. Torture. You know what I mean.. probably.  
Much appreciated if you **R&R!**


	2. first dream

_First dream; broken night_

_**brokennight**__**brokennight**__**brokennight**__**brokennight**__**brokennight**__**brokennight**__**brokennight**__**brokennight**__**brokennight**__**brokennight**_

She was flying through endless white.  
It engulfed her, it choked her, it soothed her.  
Then, one sound, one word, cut through the blissful calm.  
"Miko."

And suddenly, her ability to fly, her invisible wings, disappeared, folded in gently, and she was falling.  
Akane couldn't see the ground, but knew it was nearing, and fast. Her body picked up speed, her peach-pink hair whipping around her hair - though the strange thing was, she didn't feel a thing.  
She prepared herself for the harsh landing, a scream building up in her throat.. and her feet planted themselves softly, flattening in seeming mid-air.

Tensed muscles relaxing in a flash, Akane sank to the floor, shaking slightly.  
Her head faced the floor – or was it even that?  
Questions clouded her mind; where was she? How did she get here? What was that voice? And how it had called her –it must've been her; she was sure there was no one else around-.. Miko. Something in her twitched at the title, sang a little, but why?

"Miko, look up." That same voice said, and she looked up at the sound.  
Again, something in her moved. A young man was staring at her, his long hair –if she had to name its color, it would be something like faded emerald- bundled up at the right side of his head. It was swept across a pale face, half-covered by a grayish tint. He stared at her intently with bi-colored eyes, one that same emerald, but stronger, the other as gold as the string of beads around his neck.

"Who are you?" she stammered, struggling to get to her feet, trying to get a closer look at him.  
"My name.. is Yasuaki."  
The gate rattled, and Akane woke up.

**.  
**

Her head hurt. Did she fall out of bed again? _Nope_, she thought, feeling the soft comfort of her mattress under her, _still in bed. Maybe I caught a cold?_

Swinging her legs down to the floor, Akane slithered out of bed, shivering in the morning cold. Shooting to her closet, she tried to ignore the chilling floor, blindly snatched some clothes (meanwhile hoping she hadn't picked something thin) and sprinted to the bathroom to have a hot shower.

Her limbs pricked as the scalding water warmed her cold body. Sighing in delight, she forced herself not to take too long in the shower. Drying quickly, she slipped into her clothes (thankfully, a thick sweater instead of a summer top as she'd feared).  
Relishing in the warm steam created by her shower, Akane was reluctant to step out of her warm sanctuary. Steeling herself, she shot through the door, intent on standing in the kitchen before the end of the minute (17_ seconds left, gotta hurry_), but staggered to a quick stop as her eyes slid over the digital clock in her room. She hadn't even checked the time yet before; now she found with a shock that she hadn't needed to hurry.  
Its red numbers blinked lazily at her, presenting her the time.**  
3:47 AM** it read. Approximately three hours and thir—no, wait, the last number just shifted into an eight, so that meant three hours and _twelve _minutes before she was supposed to wake up.

With a groan, Akane sagged to the floor, ignoring the gust of wind that ruffled her still-wet hair from her slightly-opened window.

_Well_, she surmised, _I should've known, after _another_ night like that._ _That_ was something that had been bothering her for weeks on end. A stream of dreams plagued her almost every night, rousing her from sleep and triggering an uneasy feeling in her heart. It started with simple flashes; slideshows of scenes she had never seen before (even so, her heart did that weird little jump at every new image), but now… _a man! _And he had _spoken _to her!

She contemplated the young man as she dragged herself to the kitchen to make some tea. Tea always helped, she'd learned.  
No doubt about it, he had been handsome, though not in a standard way. Actually, she supposed he was anything but standard, with exotically tinted hair and bi-colored eyes. And his skin! Make-up, maybe?  
Easing the teabag into the pot, Akane added the boiling water as she sighed.  
They were definitely connected. After all, those scenes were most certainly from the same period, some of them appearing in multiple dreams. _A child-princess, looking at her worriedly_. _A sickly woman, calming down a brazen redhead. _And still that headache. That was new; did it come with the dreams, or _did_ she catch a cold?  
In any case, it was nothing her tea couldn't fix.

_**brokennight**__**brokennight**__**brokennight**__**brokennight**__**brokennight**__**brokennight**__**brokennight**__**brokennight**__**brokennight**__**brokennight**_

**A/n: **Much thanks to _Megumisakura, _**cute18386, **_saiunkokulover, _**Mew of Fire** and _Yuki the Ryuujin No Miko _for reviewing!  
The original chapter is actually way longer than this, but I got stuck writing XD so I just cut it off!By the way, I actually wrote this months ago, I just forgot about it. Sorry =.="

Please **R&R**!!


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